My party right or wrong, my country right or wrong
Wednesday 19 January 2011
I think the State Department should learn a lot from Tunisia and rethink Wikileaks, cellular networks, social networks, and the power of the raw truth when dictators lose control of the popular message.
Tunisia is an object lesson for many. I certainly hope so. Wikileaks symbolizes one organization dedicated to exposing the truth. Cellular networks, social networks symbolize means to democratize views, opinions and reasoned arguments. They get energized and received strength from the power of raw truth.
Apply these to the misplaced idealism captured by the popular slogan, my party – right or wrong or in the case of a country, my country right or wrong.
There is a school of thought, wanting UMNO to be placed on the same platform- my party, right or wrong. This notion seems to be validated by the equally erroneous idea of my country, right or wrong.
This line of thinking in modern times, I think can no longer be defended. In UMNO for example, there are sufficient number who want UMNO to uphold its integrity. One of the ways to do this is to censor what is wrong and remit the wrong for punishment. Wrongs cannot be upheld by UMNO because, the weight of public opinion, the power of raw truth will want UMNO to fall in line.
Similarly, the proposition of my country, right or wrong is also no longer tenable. Why? Because the weight of opinion from right thinking citizens fueled by the power of raw truth, amplified to the Nth power by the means to democratize, will result in even nascent ideas ensuring even a country to fall in line.
Tunisia should serve as alarm bells for those who subscribe to the notion, my party-right or wrong or my country right or wrong. Indeed Tunisia must.
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26 comments:
The excesses of the few..
The mindset of enriching the few and giving hand outs to the others.
70 % of EPPs funding by government skewed to further enhance the wealthy.
Ismail Sabri..where are you?Where's the promises by your predecessor of food stockpiles,food self sufficiency etc..Where's the promised improvement in supply chain such that the farmer gets the money and not the middleman?
No Sir,we do need the promised land of high GNIs,of financial districts and of skybeds.
We only need the promise of not being hungry,able to have an education and earn enough to be happy and a good cheap doctor when we need one.
We have been blessed with oil,good weather and fertile land..but we have failed to appreciate and maximise what we have,
Instead we go and chase wild dreams of RM 43 bil MRTs , RM 12 bil high speed trains...and if all else fail we applaud a third rate attraction re Legoland.
Time is a precious commodity when our future is at stake.Its not UMNO nor PAS..its survival and has no affiliations.
May the people see the light.
Dato',
Rightly so...
There are lessons to be learnt, to correct the mistakes, errors, etc but unless one accepts that fact...nothing will change!
Repressive laws & Indoctrination of backward values in Education creates "Mass “Nervous Breakdown” In Arab ‘Islamic’ Countries"...
Talking about Jibby's 1Malaysia vision, what is your comment on this...
http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/special-reports/37523-guidelines-for-muslims-celebrating-religious-festivals-of-non-muslims
http://www.islam.gov.my/en/guidelines-muslims-celebrating-religious-festivals-non-muslims
Looks like Jibby is cornered between his Foreign PR Con-sultan's NWO agenda of "Bankrupt the nation excercise & Chaos...followed by Divide & Rule" vs his "Desperate" attempts to seek Malay grassroot support which is waning.
Ignoring the Global Financial & Economic turmoil and Domestic cries of the struggling citizens with no Stretegic Contigency Action Plan will result in the "Tunesian" model...soon!
You be the judge.
Cheers.
Dato',
Also to share this...
YouTube - Gerald Celente: Internet nuke bomb waiting to go off - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO45VBO6Swo&feature=channel
January 10, 2011 - Gerald Celente, the founder of the Trends Research Institute, believes that the Internet will empower the youth of the world to unite to start a revolution that will overthrow the existing deadlocked elitist establishment.
He predicts that in 2011 every citizen is going to realize that the Great Recession the world has been living through is actually a Great Depression, because the American establishment is "running out of schemes."
RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com
Bolehland's Government is also running out of schemes...
You be the judge.
Cheers.
"History and experience have taught us some hard lessons. That BN will always be autocratic and authoritarian. They cannot change. The present Prime minister, by training, by education, by upbringing, is most suited amongst UMNO leaders to implement progressive and modern changes to the country. But even he will not get the support from the many layers of extremists within his party".
Above extracted from Zaid Ibrahim's speech when launching KITA. As a Malay, I find the speech truly inspiring with full of substance. If only Najib can sincerely implement even 50% of what this guy articulated in his speech, then there is hope for the country. Does he has the guts in facing the warlords and the extremist within his party? If he does not, then there is no hope for this country under his administration. We will be doomed.
I asked an MCA fella whether MCA is the party to help achieve my dream and aspiration.
He told there is no simple answer to this complex question.
Then what good is MCA and BN and UMNO if connot even do this basic thing.
They are all looking at the party right or wrong and not the country.
Very simply, these political parties are out of touch with the ordinary folks.
You have said umpteen times that your hope is UMNO will "listen to your rantings" here.
Well Sir, dream on. If UMNO had wanted to change, it would done so immediately after March 8 2008. In fact it became worse - more racist, more fanatical, more repressive, more abusive, more arrogant, more corrupted and more immoral.
It wants to retain power at all costs, EVEN IF THE PEOPLE DO NOT SUPPORT IT!!!!
Therein lies the danger of a Tunisia happening in Malaysia.
I heard one UMNO MB once said that UMNO will rule till judgement day (hari khiamat).
He forgot what happened to the Titanic.
How I pray that there are more right thinking people like you in UMNO and BN and PR.
If there is really sufficient number in UMNO who want UMNO to uphold its integrity, you wouldn't be writing this article.
You and your like-minded will be actively doing what is necessary to "uphold integrity" of UMNO.
Don't kid yourself! You guys are like little kids approaching the door of a haunted house and just waiting for someone to say "boo" and everyone will run away!
Dato'
It can happen in Tunisia and it can happen here too when the top leader is surrounded by his 'yes' men.
So far in UMNO, right or wrong is but one grey colour. No one has the guts to call a wrong, wrong.
I fully support Wikileaks and ex-Oz PM Kevin Rudd who asked the US of A not to hound others for the pathetic failure of their own making vis-a-vis computer security systems.
In any event it will teach LKY and his Ministers to be more circumspect and less arrogant when passing judgement on their neighbours.
As for wearing patriotism on one's sleeve, I will at the risk of quoting ad nausea refer to:
"Patriotism - the last refuge of the scoundrel." Samuel johnson.
In the end, it's all about Management and Leadership. Get it wrong and everything will fail, from football to hockey to education, economics, politics and social cohesion.
dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Human Race
This present govt will go the way of the Tunisian model if it is not careful with its handling of the rakyat. We shall see...
Blue Moon
Omigod we are gonna have another by-election soon. Merlimau Assemblyman has passed way.
There may be another in Port Kelang if the court allow the seat to be vacated as wanted by PKR.
By-elections are expensive affairs. Hope Najib can call for GE now, whether he's ready or not.
If I am hearing right, Najib announced tonight all the Kedah BN candidates who lost in 2008 will be fielded again.
I thought he wanted winnable candidates. Those guys lost isn't it??
This looks like other states too will not see much changes and we are gonna see the same tired faces.
In Kedah, I wonder if they are short of capable people to be YBs? Or are this people too good that they are given second chance?
Did Najib made the announcement after consulting Kedah BN.
A: 'Sir, do you think a tunisia will happen in our country?'
B: 'Perhaps in the state of Sarawak, for a start, Sofea. That tiara looked as though it could have adorned a queen of egypt. Can we all also be CM's one day? Maybe all the economics nobel laureates from Chicago can make a beeline to our land of the hornbills. But not to study ornithology, we shall sagaciously insist. More like how to accumulate wealth out of thin air. On second thoughts, if that be already known, why do we need the ETPs? What do you think, Sofea?'
A: 'I think it's not easy to start a wikileaks revolution here as was the case in Tunisia, Sir.
While there are parallels here in the gargantuan scale of corruption that had stunned tunisians and caused their ex-president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to take flight with his entourage and their ill-gotten gains, the situation here is more diffused.'
B: 'I see what you mean. Take Sarawak. Its Sarawak Report site has been hacked and that state is geographically big but sparsely populated with different voting groups spread out too thin to quickly come together to compare notes. The low internet penetration and literacy rate are also formidable constraints.'
A: 'But the most trenchant problem is that they seem to think they are well-taken care of. It's the longhouse syndrome, Sofea.
And that goes like this: You are down and out. I appear wearing a ruby-charmed ring, smile my toothiest smile, soothe away your anxieties in the silkiest of voices, and then i give you a fiver. Weighed down by aches and pains, you are beyond words in plebeian gratitude. Meanwhile i hock away your ancestral land, parlay the earnings as paid up capital in a catacomb of holdings and earn such high interest income on them i can buy entire blocks in the USofK. While that has been going on behind your back for years, your family members are slogging it out with their cangkuls in hardy fields; some get jawed at the river by crocs, others relieved of their lives by pythons if not disease and malnutrition.'
A: 'Heehee, Sir. Some will say that's too dramatic.'
B: 'Dramatic, Sofea? Then please explain to me how on the pay we know those political warlords are getting officially, they can afford the assets and lifestyles of the rich and famous. Every single one of them. Please explain. Take your time. I have a full pack here.'
A: 'Erhh, that's a frowned habit, Sir. You need to relinquish it.'
B: '(draws a dreg) (and actually inhales) Sofea, i hope to go faster.'
2
A: 'But i still think a day will come when our country will experience our own tunisia.
Look at the reasons for its implosion.
One, since its formation in '56, it had only one political grip, namely that of the ousted Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR) party.
Two, widespread corruption in the presidential entourage.
Three, unrest in neighboring Algeria used as reason to support the regime only to have wikileaks finally exposing the scam.
Four, a demographic bulge with 65 percent of the population being youths engaged at best in menial low-wage jobs.
Five, an official unemployment rate at 14 percent, the highest in that region; unofficial estimates say 30-35% of their youths are unemployed; furthermore, most are university graduates.
Six, economic dependence for 70 percent of trade on a weak Europe for tourism and textiles.
Seven, the removal of subsidies to contain the informal sector of the economy has spiked food and fuel prices and sparked riots, and
Eight, ballast effects from its neighbors, namely Algeria, Libya and Egypt whose economies are being sundered by high population growths but low employment growth; in their cases, however, the situation is ameliorated by their hydrocarbon revenues. But, similar to us in certain regards, those revenues are eaten up by equally large bureaucracies in which informal systems of patronage divert funds into private hands where even those who are employed find their jobs inefficient and unproductive.'
B: 'I would take the first two reasons as paving the way for the inevitability of the rest, Sofea.'
A: 'True, Sir. In fact, we can see a potential parallel over here with what had caused Tunisia to implode.
There, their political elites had siphoned off the profits from economic liberalization by privileging themselves, their families and their cronies with cheap government loans, heavily discounted and uncompetitive privatization, preferential access to government contracts and distribution deals so that while their rakyat were suffering from abominable living conditions, their leaders were building up large business empires even while in government.'
B: 'Allow me to add that it was precisely because of those reasons that their regime enforced status quo to protect their powers and privileges. Perhaps they were so successful in doing so that they managed to drive their opposition underground to such an extent that no charismatic leader of an opposition voice could surface.
And that's why, Sofea, i say a tunisia is less likely here. Because we have charismatic opposition leaders, no? Hehe.'
A: 'Oooh, you're such a cunning linguist, Sir!'
B: 'Shall i offer you one? Mentholated though, i'm afraid.'
A: 'No thanks, Sir. But i still think the parallels are cogent. Drive pressure about injustice underground and one small fissure will explode the full force out. In Tunisia's case, it was because of one tragic incident.'
B: 'Really? What was that?'
A: 'Its carefully nurtured image of a stable and mildly prosperous country was rent asunder by one event. An unemployed 26-year old university graduate by the name of Mohamed Bouazizi had his fruits and vegetables cart confiscated by the regime authorities; he promptly set himself on fire in an attempt at suicide and died on the 4th. That sparked widespread indignation and supplied the detonator which blew all the pressure valves that had been latent for so long.'
3/4
B: 'Don't we also know our own suicide rates, Sofea? That's why i had once said everything's so surreal here. Inside you and me, we know things can't be as hunky-dory as they have been made out to be. The problem with emerging countries like our is that those who suffer don't have the ability or means to articulate their grievances that will effect immediate, concerted and remedial actions. And that's why we need a two-political system. To open new and fresh channels for our rakyat otherwise those grievances will not be heard, will get stonewalled, ben-ali'ed so to speak.'
A: 'I hear you, Sir. Without questions, we would not have known about PKFZ, Deros, Toyo, submarine commissions and that long, long list.
Imagine a supercheap bungalow now can now be understood by the massive deals dished out to the bungalow seller. Just project how many more such arrangements have been taking place behind our backs in much the same way our Iban and other brothers have been longhoused from the crookeries of our political masters.'
B: 'Which comes to what our PM had said about fielding the most winnable candidates in elections. Did he not say so long as they have the best chance of winning, he didn't care what or how old they were? To say the least, that is puzzling. One, are the rakyat to conclude that so long as a candidate can win for a particular political front, it doesn't matter whether he or she can actually do the work after that? Is the official federal line thus that form should continue to supercede substance? In other words, is it official that the welfare of the rakyat is secondary to the single transient objective of winning an election seat? If that be so, i think the next GE will deliver the most winnable MPs with the most questionable performance capabilities. Well, don't you think so too, Sofea?'
A: 'If i may take a leaf from you, Sir, it also shows Umno has no real political culture. It appears to be subscribing to some new hybrid form of opportunistic gutter democracy.'
B: 'Gutter democracy? Hmmm. That's a new term to me. Perhaps one of our smart-aleckier listeners can elaborate.'
4/4
A: 'Don't waste time on that forty year old puffinated pretender, Sir. His bile is probably eating his innards right now.
You had recently said a real PM consciously operates outside the realm of partisanship all the time. I take that to mean he treats all rakyat the same. Let me try and argue that out for you. You tell me whether that's what you were thinking, ok?
The convention is the PM comes about because his party wins. His party wins because it wins a majority in votes. The convention therefore says what he does will necessarily be according to his party's manifesto, remit, ideals, objectives, whatever.
However, those whatever have to be applied to the rakyat. Now, is the convention and by default our form of democracy correct to infer that the rakyat who had voted for his party must take precedence over those rakyat who didn't? If yes, that means the PM is subscribing to divisiveness, right? So, does that mean democracy divides what it aims to unite, and therefore must necessarily impale itself on its own sword?'
B: 'Hehehe, Sofea. Since under present livid conditions i am rapidly veering towards some form of socialism, i can immediately agree to your logic.
Let me add just one point to what you've said. What is right and wrong is not by any political mien. The balance resides in the hearts and minds of men. If they can balance both for sustainable long-term good of the general populace, then that's the best one can expect of the human race. But looking at the despolation covered up so far in our midst, looking at all the tell-tale signs said and unsaid, looking at the significant challenges and knowing all the missing pieces which federal and political policies have denuded, i think we need to change our tunisian regime status quo. A revolution may be in order, Sofea. And while wikileaks will definitely help, i would like to quote Newton as applied to Umno: every body continues in its state of rest or crooked line unless acted upon by an external force. We know where the line has been made crooked. We know who make up the external force. As they say, let's kick ass.'
A: 'Who are you saying that for this time, Sir?'
B: 'I say it for the spirits of this land, Sofea.
They exist.'
Extracts from a book "Islam and the World " by Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (2006): Social disruption had reached its highest peak in the Eastern Roman Empire. Taxes and other duties had multiplied manifold, though the people already were groaning under innumerable hardship. Over and above the taxes were the hardships of confiscations and monopolies. As a result of these causes there occurred widespread uprisings and rebellions. In the disturbances of 532 A.C, for example as many as 30000 persons were killed in the capital itself.
Tee people had become so hopelessly addicted to extravagance and lavishment that it was beyond their powers of self control to practice austerity, no matter how pressing did their circumstances call for it. There was but one reigning passion; to amass wealth by every conceivable means, and then to squander it away in luxury and licentiousness.
The social horizon was extremely gloomy. The foundation of civilization were exposed to ruin and decay. Celibacy was preferred to matrimony, so that people could be free to indulge in debauchery to their hearts content. Justice was, according to Sale, publicly sold and corruption and breach of trust received all encouragement from the nation itself. Gibbon says that Rome, at about the close of the sixth century, had reached " the lowest period of her depression" and that " the lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the world had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground."
Similarly, the Historians' History of the World says:
"That it (Byzantine Empire) has nevertheless suffered very severely in the general decline caused by over-taxation , and by reduced commerce, neglected agriculture and diminished population, is attested by the magnificent ruins cities which had already fallen to decay, and which never regained their ancient prosperity".
Are we reaching the same fate?
'My country right or wrong' only stands when your country is at war.At other times it is used to keep incompetent and corrupt leaders in power.
More than RM 800 billion in illegal out flow since 2000.
And we are No 5 in the world in this field. Great aren't we?
Now what have you to say to that?
Still want to save UMNO?
Dato,
Indeed – ‘Tunisia should serve as alarm bells’
Why Islamic dictators always ran to Middle East (especially S Arabia) for protection when their reigns collapsed?
Bcoz they r Muslim? Or bcoz SA is itself a dictatorship?
rosmah’s recent trip to Middle East raises the question of the preparedness for haven? This is especially so, when the rumors about najib’s health is circulating fast among the knows.
How could she up-stages her government role when she has none in the 1st place! It’s almost like 1st lady Michelle visiting foreign countries on official capacity for US of A.
Someone is really losing marbles, big one, too!
There's a sense of despair in the air. Nah, not quite. It's not.
Actually the end is the beginning and the beginning the end. Life is too big to fail! ;) Didn't somebody say so?
Dato,
Whatever happened to the wranggle about Kota Gelanggi? Isn't it supposed to be in Pahang? Some say it's in Johore.
Straying a little. Does anybody have any idea?
Walla
You are right about the Chicago School Nobel Laureates.
There are plenty many of them, some seconded to Obama admnistration.
Some are in their 70s and 80s.
Among the notables are Steven Levitt of the Freakonomics fame who taught Economics of Crime.
There's also Prof Fogel in is 80s who taught Economics and Demograohics of Marketing.
If you must know in a class of models of economy in developing countries, the profs cited Malaysia as the best in prudent management during Mahathir era recession.
Our Central Bank also receives much praise.
God forbid we go the Tunisian way. God willing we won't and never be.
It is indeed contagious with Algeria following next. Also Lebanon, and Sudan etc.
Do you see the glaring excesses of Ben al-Abiedin and his wife in our midst?
And our people do not go hungry and go to the streets because of no jobs, no food or rising high fees for education.
Our people go to street demos for political issues like for sodomy king. He's the one who brought that ruffian culture to our country.
That University student who had his fruits and vegetable cart being confiscated by the regime.
He reminds me of the nasi kandar seller in Lebuh McCallum in Penang who had his restaurant sealed by LGE's political secretary.
He has finally apologised. A hollow one, if you asked me. What say you??
And who is that 40-year old puffinated pretender? Not you of course since you are smart, above the rest.
Maybe he's the logo in the Puffin and Penguin books.
Quiet Despair,
I normally don't reply to other commentators on this blog when i know my replies while contributing to the debate can be made out to be acrimonious when they are never intended to be so. We can all agree to disagree but we should quietly disagree to agree as well. That explains my desire to be quiet towards others.
Let me make this one exception today. You asked me what say i regarding that Ng closure of the Komtar's retail shop. I don't know enough of the circumstances. Perhaps the shopkeeper had been given enough notice and closure was to enforce some ruling already dished out to others who complied. Maybe you can elaborate why double standards should be practiced in this particular case since you quoted the event. Nonetheless, since he had apologized to some extent, again because we don't know the exact words said, then it must have been because he had lost his cool. Like Bung Mokhtar in parliament?
Now i ask you back a question. The incident you brought up was about closing off a shop. My question to you is about creaming off a state.
My question to you is this:
what say you about our PM supporting Taib of Sarawak who has apparently not denied to the nation how he had purportedly accumulated so much wealth beyond his allowances when he is running a state which is one of the four poorest in the land and yet one of the biggest contributors to our Barisan-run government that has enabled such wealth redistribution to our peninsular that Najib can say the policies will continue?
If you can satisfy me and perhaps others with a credible straight answer, Umno regains my trust and perhaps a vote in Tenang if not our conviction that tunisian excesses have been merely a mirage for the last thirty years in our negara.
Note this is my first and last response to you.
Salam.
Ya lah ... good Walla... giving Quiet Despair a piece of your mind.
Cant describe it better. He brought up a small local issue of a non complaint shop to "prove" his point but forgetting the mega issues right before us all. Issues that will doom not only Queit Despair but us all if everything he supports still go on.
He is practically blind to all the abuses even Dato has highlighted.
Never have you read his posting against such mega abuses.
heres a thought, if theres any argument between walla and QD i would without a doubt side with Walla. now in another scenario, if theres any argument/debates between Dato Sak and Walla, i will be a happy person and support both. i support both walla and dato sak because they do not delve into racial issues but deal with the real problems besetting the country.
I am all for Quiet Despair. I respect him because he's honest and calls a spade, a spade.
He does not pretend to be oh I am so Malaysian, man.
QD is a diplomat's son, very privileged, good education and knowledgeable.
He wants to be a Malay more than other Malays. More UMNO than some UMNO people. Something like KJlah.
What is wrong with him declaring his stand my party right or wrong, my country right or wrong or my people right or wrong or my leader right or wrong.
I am a silent blogs reader and I noticed in some pro Pakatan blogs, Malays there joined the chorus of the Nons in banmboozeling the Malays. Acting liberal konon.
This is very rampant in the blog of an old man recently awarded a Dato and used to be pro-Keadilan and now declared himself a neutral man.
Wah, the Malays there are worse than the non-Malays in condemning our leaders, UMNO and the Malays.
In Sak's blog, when he is ticking off the Malays you all are clapping hands.
But when he defends his race, you all write nasty things. Sak and other UMNO bloggers are fair to also criticize the party and laud it when its praise-worthy.
About the nasi kandar man, I am a Penangnite Malay who was really cheesed off when I saw it on TV and also on video.
That GE man was really heavy-handed. Behaving like a gestapo or a gangster. With cigarette in hand he was confiscating the gas canister and pushing the poor mamak.
Really despicable behaviour. Behaving like a pig which is his favorite animal meat.
GE is trying hard to shed off that pro-Chinese image. But that Aik fella I think his name is really embarassed him.
Same at the Komtar incident.
And he is not Adun of that constituency.
Please you guys view that on U-tube.
BN government never did that to any one.
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